Wall of fame

When Scott Walker, a contender for the Republican presidential nomination, answered an interviewer's question Sunday by saying a barrier along the U.S. border with Canada was "a legitimate issue for us to look at," he may well have been trying to endear himself to cranky voters in New Hampshire. It may not endear him to Canadians. We take a look at the scale of the unlikely wall and some potential design options.

When Scott Walker, a contender for the Republican presidential nomination, answered an interviewer’s question Sunday by saying a barrier along the U.S. border with Canada was “a legitimate issue for us to look at,” he may well have been trying to endear himself to cranky voters in New Hampshire. It may not endear him to Canadians. We take a look at the scale of the unlikely wall and some potential design options.

WHAT THE WALL COULD SURROUND

Of the 46 nations that are landlocked, a wall the length of one along the southern Canada-U.S. border (i.e., excluding the Alaska border) would seal off41 of them, including:

For cutting-edge border fence design, look no further than Bulgaria, which has recently been installing a sleek metal barrier on its border with Turkey, complete with razor wire. While hyped for its security features, it retains an airy feel that lets light flow through.

The Berlin Wall is no more, but its latter-day esthetic can live on with a Can-Am Wall that gives street artists nationwide, and on both sides of the border, a broad canvas for tagging, murals and biting social and political commentary.

Let’s face it, if a Republican government in the United States does decide to build a wall on the Canadian border, a future Democrat president may well decide to tear it down. So let’s hedge our bets.

A one-way glass wall, so we can see what happens on the U.S. side, because we’re obsessed with it, but they can’t see us, because they don’t really want to anyway. P.S. Better make it bullet-proof.

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